ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi security forces on Saturday carried out a series of air and ground operations in Kirkuk province, targeting hideouts and strongholds of the Islamic State (ISIS) militants, while killing a senior member of the group in a separate operation in the area, according to security sources and officials.
The Security Media Cell announced in a statement that Iraqi F-16 fighter jets, backed by the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, “carried out successful and precise airstrikes” against ISIS positions in the Dibis district of northern Kirkuk province, targeting what it described as “dens and hideouts of terrorist gangs” used by the militants in the disputed areas between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
The statement added that the operation was launched following five days of continuous intelligence tracking and close coordination between the Joint Operations Command targeting unit, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS), and the Counter-Terrorism Service.
ISIS seized large swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq in 2014 before being defeated in 2017 after three years of intense fighting. Despite this defeat, the group continues to pose a security threat, particularly in disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad spanning Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Salahaddin provinces.
Footage obtained by Rudaw shows warplanes striking two ISIS hideouts in six separate air raids across Kirkuk province on Saturday.
The strikes came hours after a suspected member of ISIS was killed in an "ambush" by security forces in the town of Prde (Altun Kupri), 40 kilometers northwest of Kirkuk, a local official said.
"For four days, Iraqi anti-terrorism forces have been attempting to arrest or kill this militant. This morning, they set up an ambush for him," said Abdulmutalib Najmadin, mayor of Kirkuk's Prde subdistrict. "They fired at him using a sniper and killed him."
The militant, identified as Ahmed Falah al-Jibouri, 25, from a village in Shirqat in Salahaddin province, had long-standing links with ISIS and other extremist groups, security intelligence sources told Rudaw’s Hardi Mohammed.
The sources said that Iraqi intelligence had issued a detention order for the suspect since 2019, but multiple attempts to arrest him over recent years had failed due to his movements between Salahaddin, Kirkuk, and Nineveh provinces.
Security sources added that Iraqi forces, in coordination with the international coalition, had been tracking the group for around 15 days, during which three suspected ISIS members were targeted in the operations across areas including Chiacharma and Qara Salm villages between Erbil and Kirkuk provinces
The ISIS sleeper cell was located in Prde, where they were surrounded for several days before the group’s leader was killed in an operation, according to the sources.
Separately, a Prde resident has been missing since late last Friday, with some suggesting he may have been kidnapped by ISIS. However, Amer Nariman, a police spokesperson told Rudaw that ISIS involvement has not been confirmed. “Nothing is clear yet… but we are working to find him as quickly as possible," he said.
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